Analysis of Strength Characteristics and Energy Dissipation of Improved-Subgrade Soil of High-Speed Railway above Mined-Out Areas

To reveal the effect of sand content on the mechanical performance and energy dissipation of cement improved subgrade soil, using universal testing machine and SHPB test device, unconfined compressive strength (UCS) and impact compression strength under different impact load (0.2, 0.3, 0.4, and 0.5 MPa) were carried out for the cement improved subgrade soil with different sand content (0%, 5%, 10%, 15%, and 20%). Results show that the dynamic and static stress-strain curves of the cement improved soil have similar variation trend. With the increase of the sand content, the UCS and impact compressive strength of the cement improved soil both increase first, then decrease later, showing the form of a quadratic function. The strength growth rate and the dynamic increase factor (DIF) reach the maximum values when the sand content is 10%, which is 64.7% and 18.6% larger than that of ordinary improved subgrade soil, respectively. In addition, when the sand content increases from 0% to 20%, the specific dissipation energy increases first, and decreases later. Mixing 10% natural sand is the optimal proportion to obtain better energy dissipation capacity of the sand-cement-improved soil.